Archives for June, 2007

A recycled post from the ancestor of this blog, before anyone read it. In my “Ethics in Science” class, we regularly use case studies as a way to practice reasoning about ethics. There’s a case I’ve used a few times involving research with animals where the protagonist airs some of her concerns (specifically, about her…

An earlier post tried to characterize the kind of harm it might do to an academic research lab if a recent graduate were to take her lab notebooks with her rather than leaving them with the lab group. This post generated a lot of discussion, largely because a number of commenters questioned the assumption that…

Another episode in the continuing saga, “Janet is a tremendous Luddite.” Back when I was “between Ph.D.s” one of the things I did so I could pay rent was work as an SAT-prep tutor. The company I worked for didn’t do classroom presentations to a group of students, but rather sent us out on “house…

While claims of the Free-Ride offspring’s telepathy are in doubt, there is no question of the younger offspring’s telephonic prowess (which is to say, the younger offspring can remember all the digits necessary and sufficient to place a call to either parents or grandparents with no adult assistance; the long distance carrier is thrilled). This…

Last night my better half and I had dinner with JM — at a restaurant with both excellent sushi and excellent service! Figures JM finds it right before she’s about to flee the state to start her Ph.D. program. Because my posts are often (as she put it) “long-winded, but in a good way,” she…

Yesterday, I helped give an ethics seminar for mostly undergraduate summer research interns at a large local center of scientific research. To prepare for this, I watched the video of the ethics seminar we led for the same program last year. One of the things that jumped out at me was the attempt I and…

Do you touch-type, or (like me) do you kind of know where the keys are but “freestyle” type, looking at the keyboard on a semi-regular basis?* Are any of the letters wearing off on your keys?** In answer to #2, I’ve completely lost L and N, and A and S are fading fast. Which, given…

I recently read a book by regular Adventures in Ethics and Science commenter Solomon Rivlin. Scientific Misconduct and Its Cover-Up: Diary of a Whistleblower is an account of a university response to allegations of misconduct gone horribly wrong. I’m hesitant to describe it as the worst possible response — there are surely folks who could…